by Kat Dee

Created on: January 30, 2010

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun .It is the 2nd closest planet to the earth.Mars is about1/2 the diameter of earth. It takes 687 days for mars to make a complete rotation around the sun. A martian day lasts 24 hours and 37 minutes. Mars temperature is much colder than earths. The average temperature om Mars is -62% C (-80 F). At night the temperature may drop down to -101 C (-150 F).Mars axis has a tilt of about 25%. This tilt is responsible for the martian seasons.

Mars is named after the Roman god of war because of its red color. The surface of mars is made up of bright and dark areas. The bright areas are reddish brown areas. The dark areas are called maria or seas, even though they contain no water. Mars has 2 small moons are satellites. The largest is Phobas.  It has a diameter of 14 miles. The smaller moon is Deimos. It has a diameter of 6 miles.Both moons were discovered by the American Astronomer Asaph Hall.

Mars has the biggest mountain in the solar system. It`s called Olympus Mons and is actually a dormant volcano. Mount Olympus is 372 miles across and 15.5 miles high. Mars has the biggest canyon system in yhe universe. It is called the Valles mariners. It is 2,500 miles long and 4 miles deep. Scientists believe the canals are proof of water.

Mars is one of the most uninhabitable planets. It has solar winds, freezing temperatures, and almost no atmosphere. Its more likely to be life on Venus. Mars has some really wild weather.It has small tornadoes, dust storms, and wind storms. There are more storms when mars is close to the sun.

 Several unmanned space probes have studied mars since 1965. Four American space probes all orbited but did not land on mars. They were Mariner IV,  Mariner VI,  Mariner VII, and Mariner IX. In 1976 the American Viking I and Viking II space probes landed on the surface of mars.

There have been many searches for life and water on mars. Finally they have found evidence of water. The Phoenix mission found ice underneath mars surface. Since a lot of missions have disappeared on mars, it is called the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system. There is still no evidence of intelligent life on mars.

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